Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to reassert the centrality of social class, as gendered and racialized, in an explanation of the maintenance of educational differences and the reproduction of social inequality. It provides a brief overview of the literature on parental involvement, focusing on what normative conceptions of ‘parent’ miss out. The book also provides a brief examination of social-class orthodoxies regarding women and social class. It then describes the existing structure and organization of the two schools in the study, before giving a detailed description of the local communities in which the two schools are located. The book examines how some activities generate cultural capital, while others are far less productive. It then elaborates class differences both in how mothers communicate with their children's teachers and how those communications are received.